


The Phantom Pitcher

by FridaysChild



Category: Original Work
Genre: Gen, Superheroes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-04-09
Updated: 2008-04-09
Packaged: 2017-10-23 05:08:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,966
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/246587
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FridaysChild/pseuds/FridaysChild
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Contains: baseball, pitchers and catchers thereof, badly themed supervillains, and somewhat insistant ghosts.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Phantom Pitcher

"Kaelin…Kaelin!"

Lost in her own thoughts, the girl being addressed didn’t notice her friend calling her  
until a hand landed on her shoulder. She jumped.

"Geez, you’ve been weird lately," Jessica said. "You okay? You look a little tired."

"Yeah…" Kaelin said absently, hefting her bag over her shoulder. "I was just out  
practicing my catching with one of the guys on the team."

"I don’t get why you’re so into that baseball stuff," Jessica said, "and man, no wonder  
you look tired. You got up early to do it, didn’t you?"

Kaelin shrugged. "James and I went to watch a college game after we practiced, so we  
had to get up early to have enough time."

Jessica made a tsking sound. "Well, speaking of baseball, did you hear the latest news?"

Kaelin feigned both interest and ignorance. "No, what?"

"The Phantom Pitcher again!" Jessica looked gleeful and waved the front page of the  
paper under Kaelin’s nose. Depicted where there might normally be a photograph was the  
drawing of a sketch artist. It showed a figure of a teen boy, fairly small, but one that looked  
strong and broad-shouldered. He was wearing a baseball uniform, carrying a glove on his right  
hand, a ball in his left. His cap left his face in shadow, his curly black hair just escaping from  
under it. Mysterious Vigilante Strikes Again! the headline read.

Kaelin skimmed the first bit of the article. The teenager who is becoming popularly  
known as the Phantom Pitcher made another appearance last night, foiling a mugging on Sixth  
Street. The police still have no clues that would lead them to the identity of the mysterious figure,  
and no one has come forward with a match for the police sketch.

"Cool," Kaelin replied, hoping she’d summoned appropriate enthusiasm, and shoved the  
article back at Jess, hiding a yawn behind one hand.

"You sure you don’t recognize him? No one knows more about baseball than you…it  
can’t be that hard to figure out what pitcher around here’s doing it."

"I really don’t have a clue," Kaelin replied, hiding another yawn.

"Kay? Um, go home and get some rest, all right?" Jessica suggested, shifting into  
concern.

"Where do you think I was going?" Kaelin replied dryly.

"Oh, right," Jessica said, and then tugged at Kaelin’s bag. "Lemme carry this for you, at  
least."

Kaelin shrugged, let her have it, and led Jessica back to her house where the other girl  
made sure she climbed straight into bed.

As soon as her concerned friend was gone, Kaelin scowled at the air next to her. "Alex,  
this has got to stop. I almost passed out in the middle of the baseball game."

Alex faded into sight and gave his friend sad eyes. "Kaelin, I have to find the guy who  
killed me."

"Or the girl," Kaelin reminded him wearily. "I’m just saying…is using my body really  
necessary to find this person? Just come find me when you figure out who it is and then I’ll help  
you."

"But Kay…I can’t ignore the other people who need my help. No one else should have to  
die like I did….however that was. It looked pretty bad."

Her expression softened slightly. "You still don’t remember what happened?"

"Course not," he replied bitterly, floating down to perch on the edge of her bed, not  
meeting her gaze. "Why should anything have changed?"

She sighed. "Alex…"

"Please, Kay! Please help me! I can’t do this without you!"

"You’re manipulative, you know that? Fine, I’ll help. But if I end up dead, I’m haunting  
you for the rest of our afterlives."

Alex snickered. "It’s a deal."

Somewhere across town, a shadowed figure tossed a newspaper onto a table with an  
angry hiss. "Up until now, this entire town has been under my control. The police are bought off  
and the criminals answer to me, and I keep their actions just frequent enough to keep all of us  
happy without annoying the town enough to do anything about the police force. It’s bad enough  
that prosecutor bitch is breathing up the police’s asses. Now suddenly this vigilante comes  
along…"

"Let me take care of it, Boss," someone else spoke up.

"Quiet, Adrienne. I want to know more first. Who is he? How and why does he do what  
he does? And why is the media putting such a positive spin on this?"

"Unfortunately," another voice spoke, low and dry, "journalists in this town have proved  
harder to bribe than law enforcement. Hell, they’d make a saint proud."

"Okay, Leslie, then I want you to try to figure out some other way to get the media  
involved in negatively portraying this…character. Trickery, whatever. Just figure out how to  
convince them to write negative articles on him."

"Gillespie – you know what your job is. Gather intelligence. I want to know what he  
looks like. I want to know who he is. I wanted to know why he’s doing this. Hell, if he so much  
as sneezes I want to know about it."

"Got it, Boss," a third and final voice replied, followed by the sound of chairs scraping as  
the room’s occupants stood.

After the door shut, the lone figure of The Boss remained, smoking a cigarette  
contemplatively. "This should be interesting indeed…"

 _You’re in a mood._

"Quiet, Alex, and just give me the damn ball," Kaelin snapped at the ghost in her head.  
She was tired, annoyed, and frustrated at the progress the two of them were making, and was  
ready to cream some thugs.

 _Yeah, yeah. Just don’t get yourself killed._

"Wasn’t planning on it," Kaelin replied, as the magical baseball manifested itself in her  
hand courtesy of Alex. She could feel the ghost sharing her body extend his extrasensory  
abilities.

 _Two blocks ahead, take a right. Bank robbery in progress._

"A bank robbery?" she muttered. "Doesn’t that involve a lot of guns? I’m not invincible,  
you know."

 _Two guns, two thugs, we can handle it._

"Fine," Kaelin replied, breaking into a jog. "Any rush?"

 _I’ll let you know if anything changes._

She rounded the corner a minute later, throwing the door open. The crooks both rounded  
on her, brandishing guns. "Get down," one ordered, cocking his weapon, while the other turned  
back to the other people in the bank.

"Glove, please," Kaelin murmured, and Alex obligingly made her magic glove appear on  
her hand.

Recognition was beginning to dawn on the face of the crook watching her, but Kaelin  
didn’t give him time to react any further than that. Quick as a flash, she sidearmed her ball,  
hitting the gun straight on target, knocking it out of the man’s hands and sending it skittering  
across the floor.

 _I can’t believe you prefer to be a catcher._

"Quiet, Alex," Kaelin muttered. The other crook turned around firing, and she quickly  
snapped her gloved hand up, the magic stopping the bullets in place. When the man’s revolver  
clicked in the way that indicated he was out of bullets, Kaelin dropped her glove, the bullets  
clinking harmlessly to the floor. "And that’s why I’m a catcher."

 _I admit, I couldn’t face down a speeding ball, much less a speeding bullet. More power to  
you._

Kaelin strode over to the gaping man, yanking the gun from his grip without resistance.  
He made a move to punch her, but she blocked his oncoming fist with her glove and then threw  
two quick punches designed to knock him into the wall. "Are you quite finished?" she  
questioned. There was no verbal answer, but the crook didn’t look too inclined to move. She  
went to retrieve the second gun, handed it to the teller that looked the least freaked out, and then  
strode out of the bank.

 _You know, I don’t think it was necessary to hit him quite that hard._

"Just be quiet and find me someone else who needs help."

Inside the bank, Jill "the Bishop" Gallagher calmly pulled out a notebook and began  
writing down everything she’d seen take place. There was nothing like planted crime to do a little  
recon on one’s enemies, and as one of The Boss’s inner circle, getting a couple street thugs to do  
her bidding hadn’t been difficult. She now had a good idea of what the Phantom Pitcher looked  
like and would surely be able to spot him again, although his face had been somewhat shadowed  
by his cap. Her only regret was that she hadn’t been closer – the Pitcher had clearly been  
muttering to himself and what he’d been saying could have been useful. But perhaps another time  
– now was her chance to get back to The Boss and see about borrowing a sketch artist from the  
police force before the details of the encounter faded from her mind.

  
When Alex’s body was found where it had been dropped in the river, Kaelin’s mother  
came to tell her about it. Kaelin managed to muster the proper tears that she’d truly spent for  
Alex weeks ago, with the boy himself sitting invisibly next to her on the bed. When it came time  
for his funeral, Alex’s mother asked if Kaelin would say a few words. Over her protests that she  
didn’t know the first thing about public speaking – Kaelin noticed that neither Alex nor his  
mother could take no for an answer – Kaelin was talked into speaking about her friendship with  
Alex.

Alex found it all oddly hilarious for someone who was, technically, attending his own  
funeral. Kaelin had glared at him as she tried to write her speech, crumpling several papers up before  
she finally got a good start.

"Alex and I met when we were both five," Kaelin started, her voice ringing through the  
mike in a way she wasn’t quite used to. "We played Little League together. A lot of you know  
both of us…he played pitcher, I played catcher. We played really well together and we started  
hanging out a lot. Our first coach used to joke that we seemed to have some sort of psychic  
connection. I always knew where his pitches were going to go." Her eyes were already tearing up.  
She still talked to Alex, but it wasn’t the same – Alex was dead and they’d never play ball  
together again, at least not quite in the same way.

"We grew up inseparable, but then I stopped playing," she said slowly. "It just wasn’t fun  
anymore. Alex and I were still a great team – an amazing team - but most of the other guys  
started thinking of me more as a girl. They started thinking that hey, girls shouldn’t be playing  
with them. And I didn’t really feel like I belonged on the team anymore. I regret that now, not  
because of the other guys, but because Alex and I didn’t do the thing we loved together anymore.  
Sure, we did throw a little bit together, but it’s not the same as being part of a team, playing in  
games.

"He wanted me to try out for the high school team with him. I told him I didn’t want to. I  
regret that now. I’m playing on that team because he wanted me to and because he’d still want  
me to. Alex was a smart, strong, talented, amazing guy. He saw me as a friend and a good catcher  
and he believed in me and trusted me. I want to honor his memory by being worthy of that faith."

Her voice hardened slightly. "I also want to help bring justice to victims like Alex. When  
baseball season is over I’m going to volunteer my time for Lexi Marshall’s office – that’s the  
county attorney. Alex would have wanted me to fight for justice." She smiled slightly, wiped the  
tears from her cheeks, and took her seat.

  
"Adrienne," The Boss murmured in the darkened office. "Do you think you’re up to  
assassinating this character yet?"

Adrienne bowed her head, considering. "From what Jill relayed, this… Pitcher… is  
something I’m used to dealing with. However, I intend to not give him time to use his powers.  
All it takes is one sniper shot to the head. If you wish for me to attack now, before The Bishop  
bothers with further reconnaissance, I will do so. Your will is my action."

The Boss considered slowly. "The Phantom Pitcher has not been known to kill as yet. If  
you try and fail, we haven’t lost anything. Do it. And then send Leslie in here. I want to talk to  
her about setting Marshall up for something."

Adrienne bowed her head in assent as she exited the room. "Sure, Boss."

  
 _Kay, I hate to alarm you, but I think The Boss has taken an interest in us. He’s sent one of  
his henchmen, who is currently watching us with a sniper gun. We’re just out of range, though._

Kaelin said something rather impolite. "This is your fault!" she muttered.

 _How is it my fault? I didn’t ask her to come here._

"You got his attention!"

 _Yeah, yeah. We can fight her or we can try to give her the slip long enough to escape._

"Fight. I don’t run. I’ve never run."

 _You know, sometimes there’s wisdom in running. This isn’t gonna be a cakewalk like  
we’ve been getting used to, you know._

"I’m not stupid. I know that. But if we fail and she follows me back home, my family  
could be in danger. And I have taken judo since I could walk almost. Just get me as much  
information as you can pull from her head on short notice. I want to know as much as I can to  
fight her."

 _Okay. Make sure you keep moving quickly in the meantime._

"Got it." Kaelin broke into a jog, making sure not to move in only straight lines or  
discernable patterns. There was a momentary silence from Alex while he picked surface  
information from the woman’s brain.

 _Okay, here’s what I found out,_ Alex said, dumping a pile of information into Kaelin’s  
head. She took a moment to sort it out and then nodded, turning around.

"You can come out now, I know you’re there!" she yelled, looking to where she knew the  
woman would be now. "And the sneak attack isn’t going to work."

 _Incoming!_ Alex warned. Kaelin put her glove up and braced herself in time to stop the  
speeding bullet.

"Come down and fight face to face, you coward!" Kaelin yelled. Moments later, a woman  
dropped down in front of her.

"Hm, I kind of like you, little boy," the woman smirked. "You’re gutsy. Too bad I’m  
under orders to kill you. By the way…my name is Adrienne. I am called The Boss’s Black  
Knight."

"It is too bad," Kaelin replied, and without warning took a step backwards to give herself  
room to throw a spin kick at the assassin’s head. Adrienne blocked it, using Kaelin’s momentum  
to throw her to the ground and aimed a kick at Kaelin’s side. Kaelin twisted out of the way,  
bracing herself on one foot while the other snapped up into Adrienne’s stomach.

Adrienne wheezed, a little surprised. "Not bad, kid."

"I know what you’re going to do," Kaelin informed her with a scowl. This was partly true  
– the information on Adrienne that Alex had gathered helped her predict the woman’s moves.

"Know this!" Adrienne snarled, arm snapping out to fling a knife at Kaelin. Kaelin again  
used her super powered glove to block the move, closing it around the knife and flinging it back  
at Adrienne, who dodged.

Kaelin managed to regain her feet while Adrienne was on the defensive and this time  
aimed a sweeping kick at her feet. Adrienne jumped over and threw a punch at Kaelin’s head.  
Kaelin caught it in her gloved fist and power Alex supplied blazed into the glove, superheating it  
around the assassin’s hand. She yelped and jumped back. Kaelin pressed her advantage, stepping  
sideways and planting her foot into Adrienne’s stomach. She went flying back into the wall.

"Hear this," Kaelin said. "I want you and the boss to leave me alone. Got it?" Her energy  
ball was starting to appear in her left hand as Alex threw his energy into its creation.

"Yeah, of course," Adrienne panted, a strange twist to her lips.

 _Kaelin, LOOK OUT!_

Alex’s yell was all the warning Kaelin got. She instinctively dodged right as another knife  
came flying at her, slicing her arm. She hissed in pain and the energy ball dissipated, Alex  
sharing the sensation in his phantom limbs. Kaelin lashed out instinctively when Adrienne threw  
a punch at her, knocking her arm out of the way and catching her in the chin. She hit the wall  
again.

As if sensing what she needed, the glove disappeared from her right hand and reappeared  
on her injured left. The energy ball reformed in her uninjured arm and Kaelin wound up.

She didn’t want to kill the woman – that would make her just the same. Instead, she  
aimed to wound just enough to keep Adrienne from bothering them for a long, long time. The  
ball struck her shoulder with full force. There was a flash, a yelp of pain from Adrienne, and then  
Kaelin was running. She’d be in no position to follow Kaelin now, if nothing else.

  
"Have I mentioned lately that I hate you?" Kaelin hissed at Alex, carefully wrapping a rag  
she’d stolen from her mother’s rag bin around her arm. "This is going to scar and I’m going to  
have to wear long sleeves or come up with something really good to tell my mother."

"Rabid elephant," Alex suggested.

"Very funny," Kaelin growled, giving him a dirty look. "I hate you. So much."

Alex smiled. "Thank you, Kaelin."


End file.
